Deep inside the rotunda, the perspectives are distorted and the illusion is destroyed.

Unlike conventional pictures with a central perspective, there is no one ideal vantage point from which the cyclorama should be viewed. Instead, visitors explore the canvas with their eyes. One of the main challenges of cyclorama painting has always been to convey three dimensional reality to a huge curved canvas. In order for the scene to appear realistic, the artist must distort the perspective of the buildings and the horizon.